Case Western Reserve and Cleveland Clinic are leading development of a computerized tissue-imaging program that could soon help identify which lung cancer patients are likely to face an earlier recurrence of the disease.

With that information, cancer experts could more accurately determine which lung cancer patients should undergo aggressive post-surgery chemotherapy—and which are unlikely to benefit from it.

Michael Hore and Jon Pokorski, both assistant professors of macromolecular science and engineering, have received Young Investigator awards from the American Chemical Society’s Polymer Materials Science and Engineering Division (PMSE).

The 2018 PMSE Young Investigators include approximately 21 young scientists from academia, industry and national laboratories who have made significant contributions to their fields within polymer science and engineering. These scientists and engineers are emerging as leaders in the fields the synthesis, processing, characterization and physics of soft materials and their applications.

When an internship fell through last summer, Case Western Reserve University student Prince Ghosh used his extra energy and the unexpected free time to work on another project—one with potential to increase the efficiency of wind turbines and airplane wings.

“It seemed as good a time as any to build a prototype, so I spent the summer with a friend using the wind tunnel right here on campus to test it out,” said Ghosh, a third-year undergraduate mechanical and aerospace engineering major. “I think it went pretty well.”

John Tomko learned how to code on a TI-84 calculator at the urging of a high school math teacher. Tomko took on the challenge—and now, the rudimentary programming method seems simple to Tomko, having earned a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering and nearing completion of the Master of Engineering and Management (MEM) program at Case Western Reserve University.

Tomko initially chose to come to Case Western Reserve for his undergraduate education because he could participate in varsity athletics on the swimming and diving team and pursue an engineering degree at a rigorous institution.